Malleable Software
How AI agents and agentic operating systems like Omarchy are pushing software into a new category: personal, reshapeable interfaces built by the user.
Since the launch of Opus 4, the way we interact with the internet and its applications has changed drastically. Anyone who is even a little aware or active on social media is now using ChatGPT and similar tools in their daily lives. Whether it's searching for a cooking recipe or creating an itinerary for Japan, it's all being done with AI tools.
This change in interaction has brought huge UX upgrades (and sometimes downgrades) to almost every application. WhatsApp has its own Meta AI (utterly useless IMO), X has Grok (you can chat with it directly on the timeline), and Google searches are now basically an AI summary from Gemini.
Agents came first
While these AI tools were being introduced by giants, some individuals and companies created the latest and most hyped software: AI agents. Openclaw (based on Pi) gave birth to a completely new category, where you can customize your agent in any way you like and make it do almost anything. Agents like Openclaw and Hermes took over the internet and brought agentic payments, x402, to life, making your agents pay directly for any tool they use using cryptocurrency. Agentic payments became so big that even Cloudflare brought x402-specific tools live, along with their own agent computer and wallets.
The next stage: malleable software
Now we are on to the next stage of the software upgrade, i.e., malleable software: software you can personalize the way you want. Omarchy by DHH is the first example of it that I know of.
Omarchy is an agentic OS, based on Arch Linux, built around the thesis that the user should have the ultimate power over how they want to use their machine. The native agent lets the user customize their whole environment as they need. This is the foundation of malleable software, as it is a new category of software designed and used by the user as they wish.
Just think: if you had an email app that, instead of showing 20 different buttons on the screen, showed only what you need—you just have to ask for it. Or if you had Microsoft Word with only simple formatting options (bold, italic, line, table) and nothing else, so you could write peacefully. Or if you wanted, you could have AI analyzing every statement and adding possible citations. The possibilities are endless; it's all about what you want and where you want it.
Omarchy OS gives you an environment to experiment or work in the setup you created for yourself. Many might say this is for high-tech folks—and to some extent, yes—but the barrier is getting lower day by day. Right now we are at the point where, if you know how to use an agent, you can work on your personalized OS easily.
If you want to try it out, I've put together the different ways to install Omarchy depending on your machine.
Where this goes next
Right now, malleable software is starting in the desktop environment and is usable mostly by techies. Soon it will penetrate the mobile environment, leading to a completely new way people use their phones. Imagine every pixel on your mobile being configured to your needs and behavior. You don't need to switch between applications; you are just typing or speaking (or soon might only be thinking), and your interface changes accordingly.
The journey to malleable software won't be easy and definitely won't be cheap (those AI tokens cost $$$, you know). It will include security flaws and fixes, lawsuits by corporate, push back from governments if it provides too much privacy to citizens, AI agents going rogue and operating your system without your knowledge, and much more. But this has been the way of the world for every new technological adoption.
Not to mention, all of this is possible because of the great open-source community, which keeps pushing in favor of users without asking for almost anything in return.
Thanks for reading.